His Majesty’s Presence

I love America. The first words of The Godfather, and three words also deep within my heart. In spite of my distaste for many of its inhabitants (present company excluded), the ideals of this nation are dear to me, and, as on every 4th of July, I read the entire Declaration of Independence with a lump in my throat.

I, too, would like to share with you this magnificent clip from John Adams, in which Paul Giamatti’s character meets King George to try to mend the obvious rift between the newborn U.S. and Britain. It is an extraordinary scene, and I’ve read that this is one of the very few instances where every single word was written down, and those words are precisely presented here: